Trading weeds
Rodger Whitlock (Thu, 07 Feb 2013 09:35:28 PST)

On 6 Feb 2013, at 11:32, James Waddick wrote:

None from this direction.

I received, many years ago, seed from the then-ARGS supposed to be Tecophilaea
cyanocrocus. Being young and naive and unfamiliar with the plant, when it
germinated I didn't realize that it was no such thing. I allowed it to grow in
its pot, flower, and seed into all the nearby pots.

Turned out to be that pest of pests, Nothoscordum inodorum. And thanks to re-
use of potting soil, it spread into the garden.

The eradication campaign took ten years of careful digging with a fern trowel
and a number of kettles of boiling water to destroy offsets near the holes I
dug.

These days I'm trying to eradicate Allium roseum from commercial bulbs that
form innumerable bulblets below ground and bulbils in the inflorescences. I
question if my garden will ever be entirely free of it. (Alliums grow very very
well in Victoria's climate!)

There is no universally valid moral to this story, except, perhaps, "beware
the re-use of potting soil."

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Z. 7-8, cool Mediterranean climate